$46,000 fine for exploiting labour
A Christchurch farm that exploited volunteer workers has been slapped with a $45,900 penalty by the Employment Relations Authority.
The ERA decision said Robinwood Farms Ltd and its sole director and shareholder, Julia Osselton, showed complete lack of remorse, begrudgingly paid wages arrears, and continued to argue that the two workers at the centre of the case were volunteers or Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOFers).
Robinwood’s ‘‘true level of mischief’’ would never be fully known because of the lack of records, but the intolerable situation was ‘‘a clear and unequivocal case of worker exploitation under the guide of Wwooferism,’’ the ERA said.
The Labour Inspectorate claimed thousands of young travellers had passed through the rundown property at Tai Tapu on the outskirts of Christchurch where workers were fed waste from supermarket bins and lived in substandard conditions while helping run Osselton’s various gardening and firewood businesses.
Although it could have imposed maximum penalties of $80,000, the ERA took into account that Osselton had paid the workers concerned arrears of wages and holiday pay.
In its submissions the Labour Inspectorate said aggravating factors of the Robinwood case included the systematic use of migrant labour for many years, the vulnerability of workers who were deliberately underpaid $120 a week for 20 to 30 hours work, and failure to provide employment agreements.
The penalty, which the inspectorate said was the largest fine yet for abuse of freebie labour, will be shared between the Crown and workers Rachael McGowan and Huikan Quan.
The authority said those wanting to use WWOOFing schemes should be wary of its findings in this case and seek advice about the ‘‘bona fides’’ of the arrangements they entered into.
It was the second ERA award against Osselton, whose Karamea Holiday Homes business paid more than $20,000 to a Spanish worker last year and was hit with a $5000 penalty.